Historical, Botanical and Medicinal Perspectives on Ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Abstract

Ginger is one of the most valuable culinary medicinal spice with inestimable economic uses. Because it is, a well acknowledged plant both in folkloric and advanced medicine, there are no paucity of information on the many important uses of ginger in the literature. In this review, we conveyed important details on the chemistry, pharmacology, toxicity and clinical uses of ginger. Our review of over 171 articles showed that ginger use has a worldwide coverage. Randomized clinical trial studies on ginger are most prominent on the alleviation of pregnancy-induced nausea and vomiting with fascinating outcome. In addition, the prospective use as anti-inflammatory, thrombolytic, and anti-diabetic agent were well noticed. Although the dependent on plant as source of drug in the search for disease remedy is premised on their acclaimed effectiveness and safety, available data have showed plants may possess some toxic potential, overall, our review showed that ginger might be safe with no adverse effects when investigated in normal rodent and human.